"Miserable Circle" and "Small Miseries": A Gendered Digital Counterpublic on Sina Weibo

This thesis explores the dynamic of an online community on Weibo, Miserable Circle. Through the lens of digital counterpublic (re-read as more culturally-relevant circle), this research delves into the construction of this circle and the collective identity, "small misery", of its members. It also examines how its members challenge specific Chinese family values, institutional inequality, and stigmatization from outside. Despite misinterpretation from outside, small miseries are in fact "soft, gentle, and sensitive" and they enthusiastically engage themselves in feminist activism and speak up for female victims in social incidents. This research not only intends to highlight this aspect of this circle and aims to forge a path to link "digital counterpublics" and "circle" in a non-Western context, two separate yet interrelated concepts.